1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fastening element for sealing after attaching tags such as brand labels, price labels, material descriptions, instruction manuals, etc., to products such as garments, shoes, bags, etc. In particular, the present invention relates to a fastening element whose filament section does not get entangled when the fastening element is set to a special-purpose device (gun) for attaching the tags.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, for binding garments, ladies boots, sandals, shoes, etc. or for attaching brand labels, price labels, etc. to the products, a fastening element 4 as shown in FIG. 5 has been used.
In FIG. 5, the fastening element 4 comprises a plurality of unit filament sections 20 each of which being arranged in parallelism with each other and being integrally and fixedly held to each other.
One example of each one of the unit fastening elements 20 is shown in FIG. 6.
Note that, as shown in FIG. 6, each one of the unit fastening element 20 comprises a filament section 5 that forms a loop by passing the tag, an inserting head section 6 mounted on one end of the filament section and equipped with an appropriate step like portion or a hooked portion 9, and a socket section 8 mounted on the other end of the filament section 5 and provided with a hole 7 for passing the inserting head section 6 and being provided with a blade member 19 therein, the blade member 19 being able to engage with the step-like portion 9 of the inserting head section 6so as to irreversibly fix the inserting head section 6 in the hole 7.
A plurality of unit fastening elements 20 are temporarily fixed to two connection bars 11, 11′ so that the unit filament section 20 are kept in parallel with each other.
An embodiment of the fastening element 4 of the present invention as shown in FIG. 5, is formed integral preferably with synthetic resin, etc., and in particular, the filament section 5 is drawn and is extremely resistant to tension.
As shown in FIG. 6(C), when the inserting head section 6 is inserted and passed through the hole 7 of the socket section 8, the blade portion 19 which is provided inside the hole 7 of the socket section 8, is displaced outwardly so that the step-like portion 9 of the inserting head section 6 is engaged with the blade portion 19 to make the inserting head section 6 being irreversibly fixed inside the socket section 8, and the loop-form label fixing condition is completed so that sealing is achieved.
Conventionally, these fastening elements 4 are loaded on the special-purpose coupler gun (attaching gun) 10 as shown in FIG. 7, and have been used not only for binding boots, sandals, or shoes but also primarily for fixing the brand label or tag T describing the directions for use to products by using an operation lever.
However, with the conventional fastening element 4, over all the fastening element including the filament sections is simply formed in a flat surface configuration, and thus when the fastening element 4 is mounted on the attaching gun 10, it is necessary for an operator to bend the filament section 5 by hand so that the inserting head section 6 and the socket section 8 are closed to each other, and such operation arises various difficulties for the operator.
For example, as shown in FIG. 7, when the fastening element 4 is mounted on the attaching gun 10 enabling to fasten a label, a tag or the like to a good, by operating the lever 18 of the attaching gun 10 so that a plurality of the unit fastening elements 20 is continuously attached to each one of predetermined goods, respectively, the operator is required to do operations in that the fastening element 4 is first bent with a relatively large force and then the connection bar 11′ to which the inserting head section 6 are connected, is inserted into an insertion slit 31 mainly used for the connection bar 11′, after that, the connection bar 11 to which the socket section 8 are connected, is inserted into an insertion slit 32 mainly used for the connection bar 11.
This connection bar inserting operation is usually very heavy work and further it is also difficult operation in which the operator holds the attaching gun 10 with his one hand while setting the fastening element 4 on the gun 10 with his other hand.
However, with the conventional fastening element, when a plurality of the filament sections 5 each being arranged in the plane condition and in parallel to each other, are mounted on the attaching gun 10 with making the filament sections 10 into curved configuration and are used successively one by one, the curved configuration portions of each one of the filament sections 5 each being adjacently arranged to each other, are frequently entangled with each other causing jamming condition on the fastening elements attaching gun due to such entanglement thereof.
Further, since it is difficult to identify a front surface or a back surface of the fastening element 5 when the filament sections of the fastening element 5 having a flat configuration should be bent, the fastening element 5 is sometimes erroneously bent in an opposite direction, causing the attaching gun 10 to malfunction.
And further, when the filament sections 5 arranged in a flat configuration, are bent, since the filament sections 5 are relatively hard and there must be a limit in radius of curvature to be bent, a width of the attaching gun cannot be sufficiently narrowed.
On the other hand, a plurality of the fastening element 4 as shown in FIG. 5, are stacked with each other and inserted into a predetermined package with this stacked condition.
And when this package is transferred to a prescribed working place at which each one of the fastening elements 4 is picked up from the package, each one of the filament sections 5 of one fastening element 4 are entangled with the inserting head section 6 or the socket section 8 of other fastening element 4 adjacently arranged thereto and thus when one fastening element 4 is about to be picked up from the package, a plurality of other fastening elements 4 are simultaneously withdrawn from the package and thus a significant extra operation is required to separate them each other causing the operation cost to be increased.
In order to avoid this problem, appropriate sheets or appropriate separating member should be inserted into a space formed between the fastening elements 4 adjacently arranged to each other and thus this method also causes to increase the production cost.
And further, in order to resolve this problem in the past, the applicant has already provided a new method in that the filament sections 5 should be positively bent in curved condition or folded to make folded portion on the filament as shown in Japanese Patent Application Number 11-39473.
Note that, as shown in FIGS. 12 to 14, at around a center-portion of the filament section 5 of each one of the unit fastening elements of the fastening element 4, a curve-like portion 34 or a folded portion 35 is positively formed or a portion 36 which can be easily bent or a portion 36 which can be easily folded is also positively formed thereat.
By using the above-mentioned method, the operation for mounting the fastening element 4 on the attaching gun 10 as shown in FIG. 7, has been improved but however, a distance formed between the curve-like portion 34 or the folded portion 35 of one filament section 5 of the fastening element 4 and that of another filament section 5 adjacently arranged thereto, is easily changed and thus it is acknowledged that during a time when each one of the unit fastening elements mounted on the attaching gun 10 is shot successively, the filament sections 5 adjacently arranged to each other are entangled with each other causing to generate the jamming condition.
Further, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, when each one of the unit fastening elements 20 of the fastening element 4 which is mounted on the attaching gun 10, is shot, respectively, a distance formed between the free end portions of the upper most end portion of each one of the pair of the connection bars 11, 11′, is expanded causing to be a reason for generating the jamming condition as well as to be an obstruction to eye for an operator to work the label attaching operation so that working efficiency thereof is reduced.
Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a fastening element that enables to improve the working efficiency for mounting the fastening element in which a plurality of the unit fastening elements are arranged in parallelism with each other and being integrally and fixedly arranged to each other with appropriate connecting bars, on a device mainly used for the fastening element, as well as to provide a fastening element that enables to prevent each of the unit fastening elements from being jammed or entangled with each other.
Further, it is a second object of the present invention to provide a fastening element each one of which can be easily taken out singly, from a package when the fastening elements are contained into a package, and to provide a package for containing and transferring the fastening elements.